In prior art angle drives, very different types of toothing are used. In general engineering applications, most angle drives are composed of two conical gearwheels with outer helical gearing. Crown gear drives wherein one of the gears carries spur gearing are also being used to an increasing extent in general engineering applications.
In automotive applications, in the axle drives of motor vehicles with a rear wheel drive and in angle drives from the output from the driven front axle to the rear axle of vehicles with transverse front engines, it is common practice to use hypoid gears. Hypoid gear arrangements are characterized by pairs of gearwheels with an axis or hypoid offset such as conical pairs of gearwheels with outer helical gearing whose axes cross one another at a distance from one another.
With respect to noise abatement, production technology and efficiency, the above-described angle drives have already reached a very high level. Nevertheless, such devices have limited torque transmitting capability. Despite the use of helical gears in the form of hypoid drives, pairs of externally toothed gearwheels with limited tooth overlap create a disadvantage in terms of torque transmission.
Thus, there exists a need for an angle drive having improved torque transmitting capacity while retaining comparable gearwheel dimensions.